The Annual Pinkie Fest is a party designed to raise awareness for charity and this year they are supporting the Johannesburg Cochlear Implant Centre NPC.
For the last 18 years, the Pinkie Fest has united partygoers looking for a good time and a positive atmosphere. The Gauteng event, which had a relatively small start has grown into a heavy hitting music festival, supporting local talents and has become one of the most anticipated parties on the event calendar in recent years.
With their 18th event, the Pinkie Fest Team in their own words have “have concocted the perfect ‘feel good’ hangover cure” by inviting this year’s guests to party with a purpose and support the Johannesburg Cochlear Implant Centre on the 25th of August 2018 at the GoG Lifestyle Park in Krugersdorp.
“As music lovers, we appreciate a good beat and the euphoria of being united through sound, but many South Africans don’t have that luxury, which is why we have selected the Johannesburg Cochlear Implant Centre as our charity beneficiary this year in hopes to make a difference.” – says Pinkie Fest event organizer, Donavan Nicholls
Founded in 2009, The Johannesburg Cochlear Implant Centre NPC, has performed over 500 cochlear Implants with limited funding and no government support.
“In South Africa alone about 7.5 percent of school children suffer from varying degrees of hearing loss. Many of these children are unable to get the treatment they deserve because their parents often face financial obstacles “ says Yvonne Penfold, an audiologist at the Johannesburg Cochlear Implant Centre.
According to JCIC, If a hearing impaired child is fitted with a Cochlear implant early enough, they have the ability to develop normal speech and language patterns and attend mainstream schooling.
“If an implant is done within the first 2 years of life and the child is enrolled in speech therapy with a trained rehabilitation therapist, their language development will be age appropriate by the time they are enrolled in formal schooling if there are no other concomitant problems.” – Says Penfold
“Early identification of hearing loss and neonatal hearing screening is vital. In an ideal situation, hearing loss would be discovered within the first 3 months, within 6 months the child would be fitted with hearing aids and undergo a Cochlear implant procedure before their first birthday” Adds Penfold
To raise funds to purchase at least one cochlear implant to change a young individual’s life, The Pinkie Fest has teamed up with donations based crowdfunding platform, BackaBuddy to raise R200 000 needed for the device. Funds generated by the campaign will be managed directly by JCIC.
The JCIC, have picked out their pink outfits and are looking forward to attending this year’s Pinkie Fest to raise much-needed awareness for their cause.
“Being part of the Pinkie Fest is a huge honour, we are excited to be able to tell everyone how cochlear implants have changed so many lives. We often take for granted what it means to hear and how this impacts every aspect of our daily lives. We really hope the public will support our BackaBuddy campaign so we can continue the work we do” – says Penfold
“We believe there is no better way to party than with a purpose and this year we are proud to use our platform to create awareness for a worthy cause – adds Nicholls
Donate to the Pinkie Fest’s BackaBuddy campaign to support Johannesburg Cochlear Implant Centre here.
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